Category Archives: Games

The best Halloween party game ideas needn’t cost the earth, especially when considering how one-off Halloween as a holiday tends to be.

The best spooky ideas are also the ones that are inclusive. Not everyone will be into dancing or drinking after all, and you want everyone to feel looked after.

None of the Halloween party game ideas here need massive advanced preparation for you to pull them off. But you may need to invest in a few items, such as pumpkins, stationery and music equipment.

Let’s get you started.

Pumpkin Relay

Before your party buy as many pumpkins as you think you’d need (preferably one pumpkin per team of 2-3 players is best). Make sure to carve a face out of each pumpkin, saving all the pieces that make up the eyes, mouth and nose. Mix these pieces from the different pumpkins together in one pile.

Once your players are divided into their teams, each team sends one person at a time to fetch a piece to take back to their assigned pumpkin.

If the piece fits, the next player in their team takes a turn, otherwise the previous player must return to the pile for another piece.

First team will all the right parts wins!

Chain Ghost Story

Need spookier Halloween party game ideas? Nothing is more scary than our own imaginations.

Sit everyone down in a circle, preferably in a semi-lit room. Have the first volunteer make up a few lines of a scary ghost tale. Provide this person with a flashlight so when they tell their story, they light up their face as they do it.

They then nominate a new person to continue the tale, passing on the torch. This person now adds a few lines, before passing the story on. Keep going until everyone’s had a go or until the story wears itself out.

You can also make this into a drinking game, where the new storyteller must take a swig of something before adding their spooky share.

To add suspense, you may want to play some eerie creepy music in the background. You can also ask a friend (whose not part of your party) to make strange noises in the house for you, while the game is playing (for example, a sudden closing door or footsteps on the ceiling).

Record the story as it goes, along with people’s reactions, so you can play it back later.

Imagine I’m…

To plan this game, buy a deck of index cards (up to a 100 is best). Number each one. Then, on the blank side, jot down one object, person or symbol associated with Halloween, for example, Broomstick, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Zombies.

Get everyone sat together and nominate the first player to pull a card from the deck. Give them 30 seconds to describe their life as the object on the card, only without saying what that object is. Everyone else must guess. The player who gets the most cards guessed in the available time wins.

Halloween Suckers

Cut up 10-20 pieces of paper into symbols associated with Halloween, such as cats, bats, witches’ hats, pumpkins, ghosts, vampire teeth, bones, random limbs. The pieces need to be the size of a biscuit. Place all your shapes in a pile inside a bowl or “cauldron”.

Now give each player a straw. Taking it in turns, they each get 30 seconds to pick up as many of these Halloween pieces as they can, by sucking it up with a straw. Fastest player wins.

Name That Spooky Music

You’ll need a CD player along with a few CDs that are compilations of Halloween-related music for these Halloween party game ideas. These can include soundtracks of horror movies and TV shows, well-known pop songs about death, horror, and terror, and other spine-chilling tunes.

Play the first few seconds and see which player can name it the quickest. Keep track of points awarded.

Award a bonus point if the player can guess certain trivia about the song correctly – for example, year the film was made; the lead actress; the next line in their horror pop song.

Blind Man Walking

First of all, make sure the room your game is being played in is safe – no cables to trip over or sharp corners to bang your head against. Then pin up as many balloons as you can.

Blindfold your first player, and spin them on the spot until they have no idea where they’re at. Give the player a pin.

Now nominate a second player, whose job is to instruct their blindfolded friend to walk in a certain direction to find balloons to burst. The first one to find all the balloons in, say, two minutes, is the winning team of two.

Have lots of fun with this, by leading players in the wrong direction, so they smack into something… all in the name of fun of course!

Who Is The Murderer

Get everyone sat together again and give each person a playing card. No one must show their card to anyone; it’s for their eyes only. The player who receives the King of Hearts is the murderer (so make sure this card is somewhere close to the top of the deck as you’re distributing).

To “kill”, the murder simply blinks at another player, who simply drops dead. When a player thinks they know who the murderer is, they need to shout out “I know who the murderer is”. If someone else calls out too, both players must say the name they suspect at the same time.

If they guess correctly, the murderer is out and a new round of the game can begin. If they’re both wrong, both players are out and these Halloween party game ideas continue.

Ring Around the Pumpkin

For this large-scale version of Ring Toss, buy at least 5-10 different-sized pumpkins, painting points on them. Arrange your pumpkins with the highest score furthest away from the start line.

Players take it in turns, by trying to throw a hula hoop around a pumpkin. Each person gets 3-4 goes each in the available time, with their scores added up. Player with the highest score wins.

Murder in the Dark

Need more scary Halloween party game ideas? A slight variation on the previous Murder game, players are again seated (preferably around a table this time).

But this time, each person gets a small piece of paper that must show no one. All of the pieces must be blank, except for two – the one that says “murderer” and the other with “detective”. The detective announces themselves straight away, whereas the murderer stays quiet. Before the lights go off, everyone must play one hand in the center of the table. Now turn the lights off.

To “kill”, the murderer simply touches the victim’s hand, who in turn must scream and drop dead onto the table. Lights back on, “body” still dead, the detective must now question everyone to find out whodunnit. If the murderer isn’t found after 3 questions, the lights go off again. And the murderer “kills” again.

Do you love chocolate so much you’re counting chocolates in your sleep? I hear you.

And when you love parties as well – combining chocolates and party games makes for a potential explosive concoction.

Fortunately, songwriter Owly Dave has read our minds, with his brilliant Youtube game, “Counting Chocolates”. Owly joins us today to reveal more about how this game came to be.

So, Owly, can you tell us how you came up with this game? What were its origins?

The idea just popped into my head! I have no idea why. The tune just suited a fun song.

How did you decide which chocolates to include?

I wrote down all the chocolates I could remember, I paired up the names that rhymed, and I looked at which ones had a double meaning.

The chocolates here all sound like UK brands, e.g. Marathon, Double Decker. Are there plans to release a similar game featuring American brands?

I don’t know American brand names – except ‘Hershey Bar’ which I did include although I’ve never seen one. I think ‘Ritter Sport’ may be an international brand?

What kind of stuff do you write as a songwriter? Pop, musicals, rock, etc?

I just write songs for fun – although some of the subjects are serious. The styles are vary – many are folky but some are a bit rocky. The subjects include; escapism, childhood, romance, modelling, death, shopping, ancestors, lesbians, flying, war, wildlife, weather, memory loss, anti-war and environmental protest songs.

Is that your voice singing in the game?

Yes, I’m the only person that sings my songs!

Do you have any plans to create more games like Counting Chocolates?

I never plan to write songs; they just happen. My latest song is called ‘There goes Charlie’ which is a disaster song about a little boy who ends up being a bit of a hero. I finished writing it on Monday, recorded it on Tuesday, and played it in a Folk Club the next night (last night). Fortunately everyone loved it! My next song might be a party game or not – I have no idea!

Lastly, Owly, how do you like to chill out, when you’re creating such original party games?

My life is very busy with work at the Barn Owl Trust and I hardly ever get to chill out. Everyday I try to have a walk with my partner Jaine and our lovely dog Maizie.

If you love playing drinking party games with your friends, you’re in for a treat with Drink-A-Palooza. Developed by David Wagner back in 2001, this game took 10 years (!) and a lot of patience to get off the ground.

Unlike regular drinks games, Drink-A-Palooza combines a board game, team competition and drinking party games into one monster of an experience, that’s perfect for all parties – from house parties, to 21st’s, to bachelor/ette fun.

Joining us today is David Wagner, who’ll be sharing his story of how his game came to be, what it’s about and where next.

Thanks David for joining us. So tell us a bit about Drink-a-Palooza. Where did you get the idea for this game?

Drink-A-Palooza was born in our family’s basement when a brother of mine came home one night and said he had a blast playing a drinking game that one of his friends made up using a super soaker filled with alcohol.

When I heard him say that, my response was “I can make a drinking game!" and next thing I knew, I had grabbed the lid to a cardboard box and started drawing out what would become the Drink-A-Palooza drinking board game.

Since I had recently graduated college, I was well versed in all of the drinking games such as Beirut (beer pong with paddles), Asshole and Kings Cup. I started combining all of the popular drinking games into one monopoly styled board game.

The game was originally called “The College Experience" since I was using everything I had learned in college to design and market the game. It wasn’t until 2010 when the game took final shape and launched into main stream and the name “Drink-A-Palooza" was decided on.

Your game incorporates quite a few drinking games, like Flip Cup, Quarters and Beer Pong. How did you go about choosing these games specifically?

The specific games were chosen after 10+ renditions of the game and a great deal of test marketing. Back when the original game was made, some of the current games found in Drink-A-Palooza had not been developed or were at least not commonly played.

The first rendition was made with other games such as “Mexican" which was eventually changed to “B.S. Bluff" for political reasons and had numbers all over the board. When you would land on these numbers, and if your dice roll was higher, you would pass out sips.

Looking back, it had many of the basics you see in Drink-A-Palooza today but the game play was very different.

Can you tell us how you play it? It involves a board game and there’s a competition aspect, right? What are the rules and how do you win?

The game is best played with 3 or more people. You roll the dice to move spaces and as you make your way around the board, you will either be playing a group game such as High/Low, Kings Cup, Waterfall OR you will be playing a one-on-one competition to win mini bottles.

The point of the game is to fill up your empty 6-pack holder game piece with mini bottles that you win through 3 competitions.

The bottle challenges are Beer Pong, Quarters and Flip Cup. When you land on one of these spots, you spin the bottle located in the middle of the game. Whomever the bottle is pointing to will be the person you play or challenge. In Quarters and Beer Pong, the first person to make the ping pong ball or quarter into the middle “Drink Cup" wins the bottle.

As punishment (depending on how you look at it) the loser must drink the center Drink Cup. When playing Flip Cup challenge, whomever is the first to flip the cup over wins the mini bottle. All the other games found on the board are played with the entire group.

Drink-A-Palooza was designed to keep everyone involved and with all the variety required to have a good time. Let’s face it, a game that combines all of the best drinking games into one will keep the party going. There isn’t any waiting around to be part of the fun like games such as beer pong.

Plus you don’t need a Beer Pong table to play, it fits on anyone’s kitchen table and you can have up to 12 people playing.

How many people maximum need to be playing this game, for it to work?

The game was designed to be scalable depending on how many people are playing. The minimum is 2 players but it is recommended to play with 3 or more.

One of the best elements of the game is when you have more than 6 people playing, you can team up and partner with someone else. When you partner with someone, you share the 6-pack holder game piece AND you get to share drinking responsibility.

You also trade off turns when playing Quarters and Beer pong competitions BUT you add an additional Flip Cup when playing Flip Cup for a mini bottle. This adds the relay race aspect of Flip Cup and intensifies the competition.

What kind of age range you looking at?

Drink-A-Palooza is not intended for alcohol but we know most people will be playing the game and using beer as their beverage of choice. I have seen plenty of games with a mix of people, some were drinking beer, others water and soda was used also.

The age demographic for the game depends on the customer. I have seen the game played with people aged all the way up to their mid-fifties.

What kind of playing area do you need? Do you need a lot of space to play?

The game was designed to fit in anyone’s living room, kitchen or even dorm rooms. Knowing that Beer Pong and Flip Cup usually require an extended table that is more than 8 feet long, Drink-A-Palooza was made to fit on any table and allows plenty of people to circle around the game board.

The game only requires as much room as the amount of people playing. You do need some space to pitch the beer pong balls into the center Drink Cup but the distance is decided by the players and their skill level to make the shot.

What kind of parties would your game suit?

We have a long list of parties that suit the game. Below is a list of places, events and times the game is played or gifted to someone:

College Parties and back to college gift ideas

Fraternity Parties

Spring Break Parties

Saint Patrick’s Day Party

New Year’s Eve Parties

21st Birthday Parties

Bachelor/Bachelorette Parties

Summer Vacation

Pregame parties

Party Buses

Fourth of July

Mardi Gras Parties

House Parties

Game Nights

Gadget Gifts for him

How’s the game been doing for you so far? Do you have more ideas up your sleeve?

So far, the game is going great. It is currently sold in every mall in the US and Canada at Spencer Gifts. We attend all of the beer festivals and events all throughout Southern California and have a great following.

We often have repeat customers who absolutely love the game and tell us about the good times they’ve had with all their friends when playing.

The Drink-A-Palooza brand will be expanding into a couple other avenues and you should see some new products coming out this year.

Lastly, David, how do you like to chill out, when you’re not designing such stunning games?

Luckily. I live in Pacific Beach in San Diego and it offers up a lot of variety. There are so many options from bar hopping to surfing to laying out at the beach that there is always something fun to do. It is a truly unique place and a perfect home to the Drink-A-Palooza drinking game.

Making sure your games appeal to your party people, are easy to play, accessible, don’t exclude anyone, aren’t too competitive – can often spoil the fun. There’s just too much to think about, and saps all the love with it.

But that’s why you need to play silly games. Because unlike regular games, their intent is all about mayhem. Silly games cut across all age groups, ability, the works.

These 13 silly games were submitted by Partycurrent readers (I’ve credited folks who included their names; thanks to everyone who contributed).

Honey, I Love You!

In a group of people, one person goes around trying to make people smile.

The trying-to-make-people-smile person goes up to another player and asks, “Honey I Love You, Can You Give Me A Smile?”.

The person whom is question is being asked too has to reply back saying, ” Honey I Love But I cant Give You a smile” without smiling. If they smile then they have to be the one asking the question.

Egg Wibble Wobble

by Sophia Deel (VA)

You have a big spoon with a hard boiled egg on it. Then you mount a horse and at a quick pace you try to keep the egg on your spoon. The first two eggs to fall are out. Then you get a smaller spoon and pick up the trot. And then the next two eggs will fall. If you still have people, go to the smallest spoon and pick up the canter.

The last egg to fall wins the Egg Wibble Wobble!

For those who might not have a horse – you can also play this by using rollerskates or by riding a bike

You can also play this just by walking. Simply create a small obstacle course they must walk down. Include small humps to make it difficult

Or you could blindfold the players and have them walk down a short path.

How Small Can You Write Your Name

By Lucy (New York, US)

Love quiet but good party games? Try this one. You need a pen and paper. Each person has a go at writing their name – or a sentence – as small as they can.

In the first round, whoever does the smallest, everyone tries to write even smaller than that in the second round. But they must make sure that what they write everyone else can read.

Whoever does it best in this round is the winner!

This is a good game, especially if your family name is not an English-sounding one or if it has lots of letters.

You can also make this game harder, by asking people to use different types of pens. For example, like a marker pen round, a fountain pen round. Or different thickness of pencils.

Musical Chairs

by Kaylen (Mooresville, Indiana, USA)

Make sure you have enough chairs for everyone but one person. When the music player stops the music, everyone has to rush and sit on a chair. Whoever doesn’t get to a chair quick enough is out because all the chairs are filled up (1 person per chair).

Now take away one chair and start the music again. When there is only 1 chair left, whoever sits in that chair first when the DJ stops the music wins.

High Heels Race

By Sarah (New York, US)

Break up the group into 2 people per team Make sure everyone is either wearing socks or is bare foot. Every team gets one pair of high heels.

The person on the left wears one of the heels on their left foot, and the person on the right wears the right heel. Have each pair link arms and race to the finish! You can ask all of the teams to go against each other or have them go by pairs. A judge has the say of who wins in each race. Winners get a special prize!

To stir things up, make the game harder by asking male players to race in the heels. That’ll be worth it, just for the sight of men trying to squeeze their feet into women’s shoes!

Pin the Kiss on Your Favorite Actor

By Ryan M (New York, US)

Looking for saucy but good party games? Pin the Kiss… has it all.

This is great at parties where you’re drunk or have lots of horny guys. Hang a poster up of your favorite hot actor/actress (mine’s Halle Berry). Hang it up high enough that people have to stand on their toes to reach the actor’s lips.

First player is blindfolded, also give them a coat of lipstick on their lips. Spin them 3 times on the spot, then put them in front of the poster. They’ve got to now kiss the actor’s lips.

When done, write their name under their kiss. Closest kiss wins.

Spin the Bottle Dodge or Dare

by Racheal Omotayo (Crayford, Kent, UK)

We spin the bottle and there are a certain amount of dodge and dare cards. You spin the bottle and if you get chosen then you pick a dare card; if you do not want to to do the dare then you pick a dodge card.

Once you pick a dodge card you may not go back to the dare card. If you really do not want to do the dodge or the dare, then you can forfeit – but then you will not be able to participate in the game.

The winner is the person with the most dare points. You get these dare points by completing dares – but you lose points by picking dodges.

Wipe Out Challenge

by Tina (Australia)

This good party game’s best if you have either a lot of water balloons, water guns and hoses!

What you must do is set up outside a lot of obstacles on the track where you are playing e.g. Trampoline, scooters, hula hoops and balls, or even some times you might want to use your pool!

You normally have two people going at once and you can time each one or there will be a winner of each round and then there is the finals!

This game is always better with a lot of room to play outside.

Post It Note Challenge

Everyone splits into teams of 3 (it works best this way but you can choose to have as many as you like in a team).

Each team must choose one person to have the post-it notes stuck on them (give each team a pad of notes. You can buy them in them in the pound store).

On go, the people who don’t have post-it notes stuck on them must frantically try to stick as many post-it’s on the chosen team mate as possible.

The first team to stick all the post-it notes on their player wins.

Alternatively you can have a time limit to make the game quicker. Hope you enjoy playing this!

Stomp the Balloon

by Darron (Rugby, Warwickshire, UK)

If you have a large room, make sure to have more players, otherwise 5 players in each team is okay. Boys versus Girls is a good way to play.

You’ll need a ball of wool and a few balloons already blown up. Tie a string of wool around each balloon, with one end tied round the ankle of the player. On GO, everyone tries to stomp their opponents’ balloon, to make them burst once.

If you tie your right ankle, try not to use your right foot, you’ll probably burst your own balloon. Happy stomping!

Poison Frog

by Courtney (California)

Players sit in a circle with eyes closed. One person (not playing game) chooses 1 Frog and 1 detective. No one should know the Frog except the frog himself. Everyone should know the detective.

Then players open their eyes and look around the circle. The detective stands in the middle of the circle trying to figure out who the frog is. The frog “kills” victims by sticking his/her tongue out quickly or winking at any person (besides the detective).

When a victim is “killed” or “poisoned” they must fall backwards (out of the circle). They must only fall 5 seconds after the Frog has “killed or poisoned” them.

Dicey Choc

by Karen (South Africa)

Sit in a circle with a dice to pass around, and a huge slab of chocolate in the middle with a knife and fork and a pair of socks.

The first person to throw a 6 on the dice gets sit in the middle. They put the socks on their hands and eat the chocolate with a knife and fork until the next person throws a 6. The game continues until the chocolate is finished.

Potato Race

by Ryan M (New York, US)

This good party game’s for outdoors. People get into twos, then blindfold half of the pair. Scatter some potatoes on the ground and give the blindfold halves 3 minutes to grab as many as they can. Their partner has to shout out directions to them.

They’ve got to carry as many potatoes in their arms then drop them in a bucket before getting more!

Finding funny party games, that are also clean, silly and different to the usual games, can be a tricky thing to find.

Especially when you’re wanting to create a unique party experience with your friends. Something that’s memorable, that can also carry your party for you, when sometimes your other efforts (food, atmosphere) aren’t paying off.

But thanks to these 4 pages of funny party games, you won’t now be short of ideas. None of the games need any major props or equipment. You won’t need to spend any money setting them up. They’re best played with 4 or more players, although if your party is larger, you might need these party games for large groups as well.